Syracuse, N.Y. — The theme of the day across college sports was autonomy. Naturally, Syracuse football coach Scott Shafer was asked for his opinion on the direction of the NCAA, and he offered one that was a little more gray than most.

A vote held by the NCAA's Division I Board of Directors on Thursday granted autonomy to power-five schools, like Syracuse, to make their own rules in a variety of categories like student welfare.

Shafer saw it as a positive step for Syracuse but, as he often does, also looked at the issue from the mid-major perspective, talking about his formative years in the Mid-American Conference.

"It's a great thing for the ACC and a great thing for Syracuse University," Shafer said. "It's just the reality of where football is going. If you're in the power-five and you have an opportunity to upgrade everything you're doing, because there is a lot of financial differences between the two, now that I'm on this side of the fence, I think it's really good. I do look back and say, 'Man that's a tough deal.'"

The ruling will likely lead to stipends for players, increased medical coverage and extended education benefits, items that have near-unanimous support from power-conference schools that have spoken publicly.

A number of Syracuse players said they felt a little spending money, in the form of a cost-of-attendance scholarship, would enhance their daily lives and they hoped that would be the end result of the push for autonomy.

"I have not read the report," Shafer said. "I'm kind of up or down in there, to be honest with you. I knew it was probably going to go in that direction. It's a difficult thing. I grew up in the Mid-American Conference so I was in the have-nots. We bused to Central Michigan and to Toledo, and in the morning it was a nice long bus ride home. If you lost, it seemed like it took you three days. Unfortunately for those types of teams that I grew up coaching, it'll be a little more difficult for them."

Mid-major conferences will have have the opportunity to choose whether they adopt the rules of the power-five conference teams or play by the former ones.

Shafer didn't want to opine on whether it would be good for the sport of college football.

"I think you'll find out as time gets going," Shafer said. "I'm glad we're on the power-five side of it. I think it'll be good for us."